El Paso City Council approves open records resolution, asks for sanctions if violated

City Representatives Larry Romero and Emma Acosta listen as the resolution regarding the use of personnel phones involving city related work communications having to be forwarded to city servers by City Attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth, as she read it aloud.

City employees and elected officials must forward any city-related emails or texts from their private accounts to their city accounts or devices after the City Council unanimously approved an open records resolution Tuesday.

"This resolution is the first step but not the final step," said city Rep. Carl Robinson, who added that if officials have nothing to hide they have nothing to worry about.

The resolution states that all communications related to official city business for elected officials, employees, contractors and volunteers with a city email are not to be done on personal email addresses or cellphones. Any "occasional or inadvertent" email or text connected to official city business created or received on a personal device has to be forwarded to a city email or phone, the resolution states.

City Rep. Emma Acosta, who said she didn't believe the resolution has any real substance, asked that the city's Ethics Commission consider creating an ordinance that would impose sanctions on those who break the rules.

The council unanimously approved Acosta's recommendation and directed the city attorney and the city manager to work with the Ethics Commission to draft the ordinance.

Under the Texas Public Information Act, the public or the media requesting public information may file a complaint with a local county or district attorney if they believe the act is being violated, and may file suit against a government agency. Failure to give access to the information can be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine, a six-month jail term, or both. A violation also constitutes an official misconduct under which a public official may be subject to removal from office for such an offense, according to the Public Information Act.

Advertisement

Under the resolution approved by council Tuesday, city attorneys maintain that they cannot access information created or stored on personal equipment not owned or controlled by the city, which a new state law says is also public information if it relates to city business.

The state Legislature earlier this year approved a new law effective Sept. 1 that defines public information to include "any electronic communication created, transmitted, received or maintained on any device if the communication is in connection with the transaction of official business, including any email, Internet posting, text message, instant message or other electronic communication."

City Attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth said the resolution will become effective immediately, but won't likely apply to a pending lawsuit against the Texas attorney general over an open records request.

"This has nothing to do with what happened in the past," Firth said.

The city's outside attorneys next week will update council on its lawsuit, Firth said.

Also Tuesday, the council directed staff to prepare a status report on the proposed Downtown Artspace project by Oct. 31 with input from Artspace Properties in Minneapolis and the El Paso Community Foundation. The project, a planned multistory residential unit for artists, didn't receive housing funds for its development.

The council wants to know if the project is still feasible without funding in the form of tax credits from the state and federal governments. About 75 percent of the $13 million project was to come from federal tax credits designed to encourage investment in affordable housing.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs last month awarded $57.8 million in housing tax credits to private developers constructing or rehabilitating rental properties that offer reduced rents, but the El Paso Artspace Project was not among them.

Recommended for the award were two East Side developments by Tropicana Homes, Verde Palms and Montana Vista Palms, as well as a West Side complex called Vilas at West Mountain by Investment Builders Inc., according to a new release from the state Department of Housing.

"I for one am optimistic that the project will get off the ground," Community Foundation President Eric Pearson told the El Paso Times on Tuesday.

"We are going to do our best to get this award in the second year," said Pearson, who added that the application process for the next round of awards begins next month with applications due in March. "There were a lot of lessons learned this first time around, and we will have a more competitive application the next time."